At its peak in the late 1800s, the Chesapeake Bay produced more oysters than almost anywhere else in the world. During the twentieth century, however, oyster populations in the bay plummeted to a tiny fraction of their former levels.

And 5 years ago—in 2018— a Maryland Department of Natural Resources assessment of the state’s waters found the oyster population had shrunk in half in less than twenty years.

But there is recent good news for the bay's oysters. In October, Gov. Wes Moore announced that Maryland and its partners would plant more than 1.7. *billion* new juvenile oysters--a new one-year record for oyster planting in the Chesapeake Bay.

The new oysters are primarily grown at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge. Matthew Gray is an assistant professor at that laboratory, which hosts one of the largest oyster hatcheries on the east coast. Gray talks to us about these powerful mollusks, their habitat and the role they play in the bay.

(Photo by Dave Harp, The Chesapeake Bay Journal)

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